As is well appreciated, human skin begins to form planar discontinuities, commonly-called wrinkles, by the time that the human reaches maturity, and often even therebefore. As the human grows older, these wrinkles can produce an unsightly facial appearance. The art has expended much effort in attempts to prevent wrinkle-formation and/or to reduce the severity of already-formed wrinkles. These efforts have taken a variety of forms, including creams, salves, vapor treatments, mud packs, medicants and massage exercises.
In yet another form of the effort in the art, it has been proposed that certain mechanical appliances may be used to apply stresses to the skin for wrinkle removal. A wide variety of such mechanical devices has been proposed in the art, but the major emphasis of these mechanical devices has been that of effecting a stretching of the skin while the devices are in place and, thereby, assertedly mitigating the wrinkles. Illustrative of these approaches are U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,296,903; 2,207,730; and 2,392,377. However, the effectiveness of these mechanical devices has been repeatedly questioned. Further, such mechanical devices are difficult to apply to the skin and can only be worn with discomfort. In an effort to make these appliances more easily applied to the skin and more comfortable, it has also been proposed that the devices be held in place by pressure-sensitive tape. But even with this improvement, the devices are still difficult to apply.
In the same vein as the mechanical devices, the art has suggested skin-gripping compositions, such as court plaster (se U.S. Pat. No. 2,540,247). Alternately, fabric can be coated with an adhesive, such as gum arabic, and applied to the skin for longer periods. It is asserted that the fabric will flatten the tissue and cause mitigation of the wrinkles. The function proposed by these approaches is to distort the wrinkled tissue and cause mitigation thereof.
Thus, in summary, the art has suggested various devices for wrinkle mitigation, which devices, either by mechanical or adhesive action, are said to hold the skin in a condition which will mitigate wrinkles. Unfortunately, these approaches in the art fail to account for certain anatomical characteristics of the skin, and, therefore, are not capable of dealing with the major cause of wrinkles.
The skin or integument is stratified into two main layers. The epidermis is the surface layer; the corium or dermis is the inner layer. This inner layer (corium) is the connective tissue that blends into the subcutaneous tissue below. The epidermis is composed of a many-layered cellular membrane, while the corium is a dense, connective tissue layer, mostly, non-cellular. The subcutaneous tissue, on the other hand, is a thick layer which stores fat and acts as a cushion over the body frame of bone and muscle. Facial skin, as well as skin on other parts of the body, has systematically arranged contours reflecting the underlying arrangement of fibers in the deep dermis. These contours or cleavages are termed Langer's skin tension lines and have been mapped for every region of the body. On the face, these lines follow a characteristic form. Wrinkles occur in a characteristic pattern as evidenced by these lines of cleavage, as well as from folds or creases perpendicular to the long axis of certain facial muscles. The present invention is based on the discovery of a method and appliance for use therewith which can minimize the wrinkling effects of cleavages and folds, and correspondingly, reduce wrinkles.